Anime fans have been discussing the controversial thesis that the advent of Haruhi and her subsequent blockbuster hit status is responsible for drastically lowering the quality of anime to its current moeblob worshipping Type B paradise status.

The exchange:

“Late night anime from 2004-2006 was great. After Haruhi it all went downhill.”

“You like Da Capo and Bottle Fairies?”

“This period was actually the worst!”

“No way!”

“After an otaku onanism title became a major hit everyone started worshipping them.”

“You can’t just come out with this stuff without explaining what causes it!”

“You can tell without explaining it. Now they just churn out these light novel adaptations in droves.”

“2004 was godly, but 2006 was a dark age. 2005 was OK.”

“I agree with him. Everything went crazy after Haruhi. Nobody funds proper anime, the work is all outsourced, the quality went down the toilet after they started getting those dirty Koreans to do it, and so fewer people watch it and the quality gets worse still in a vicious cycle.”

Arthouse style anime done in gorgeous animation has been outsourced to Korea by Madhouse for a long time and they have been able to make great shows because they do a great job of funding and directing it.

I just think it's that moe worship anime has so much more selling power than the artsy stuff out there.

Also people seem to forget that Japan's struggling economy is putting a damper on everything. That includes anime, manga and videogames.

Well, that's fucking retarded too, since, you know, anime are hand drawn, and always will be. The CGI they DO use is always blatantly obvious and looks like shit compared to the rest of the show. And even the CGI is done by hand, by artists, so even CGI wouldn't level the field.

I know it may come as a surprise to you since animation companies try to keep tight lipped but I read that somewhere around 70 percent of top animation studio outsource work. They had to talk to a korean animation studio to hear about this... and this was years back before the economy went to shit. I wouldn't be surprised if its closer to 100 percent now.

you can safely say that about every single anime tv series made in the past 10 years had a chunk outsourced overseas.
in-between animation and digital paint to korea, china, ...
background art to china, thailand, vietnam, ...

outsourcing is not a recent thing either, they've done it since the early 90ies. though they concealed the koreans in the credits a bit more back in those days.

>No, only some animes that are long run, like OnePiece.
Most of the short-run anime (animes for one term) doesn't fit to this idea.

better check the veracity your claims before posting them ;)

>Lol, that's also not true, Korean. You are mixing up with the fact that Korean people used to put their names in Kanji back in those days, that's why. Now, Koreans asks to put their names in alphabet.

still a large chunk of koreans is credited with their hanja name nowadays.
it's less about the names of the people.
the way they hid the koreans back in the days was different: they didn't credit every single animator or painter, just the company they worked for. also, to obscure the origin of those companies, the names of those companies sounded very japanese, using kanji combinations that wouldn't be odd in japanese.

>Most animators in japanese anime industry are koreans. afaik.
For god sake, where did this stupid idea came from, idiot.
The only ongoing anime that is outsourcing (some background and movings) to Korea is Hunter×Hunter.

>every single anime tv series made in the past 10 years had a chunk outsourced overseas.
No, only some animes that are long run, like OnePiece.
Most of the short-run anime (animes for one term) doesn't fit to this idea.

>concealed the koreans in the credits a bit more back in those days.
Lol, that's also not true, Korean. You are mixing up with the fact that Korean people used to put their names in Kanji back in those days, that's why. Now, Koreans asks to put their names in alphabet.

You idiots are confused. Anon 19:21 is right, anime is a Japanese term and product. Don't get confused if the Japanese producers outsource their non-key animation to foreign countries - that does not change the end product into a Korean or Vietnamese product all of a sudden.

That would be like saying Simpsons is a Korean animation just because the producers outsource part of the production to Korea.

If you see his comment "japan is the only one that makes anime", in response to quote "blaming korea for making animation horrible" which was in response from the article where a 2ch member stated "outsourcing animation to korea is when it became horrible".... it would seem you are the confused one. ಠ_ಠ;;

On the other interesting note I didn't know korea animated for simpsons, does that go for futurama too?

I really don't see Haruhi as a "Type B" kind of show. It's very smartly written, and most episodes (especially those based on the first novel) have a reasonably complex plot backed by a fascinating mythology.

It's not the show's fault if some people love it only because of its moe/harem aspects. I still think it was the best show of 2006, and one of the best shows of the '00s overall.

The problem is that Haruhi was really head-and-shoulders above the rest in quality (not to mention it also pioneered new technologies used in that "Hare Yukai" dance) when it came out, and that it made others look mediocre or crap. Other studios would have to basically gamble with their limited resources to match Kyoto Animation's quality.

I agree completely. A lot of people don't really understand me when I say this (and it's probably going to make me sound like a pretentious douche or something) but I find Haruhi to be a really thought-provoking anime. On the surface it seems fairly straightforward, and on that level alone it's an enjoyable story, but there is so much going on under the surface that it took me repeated watches to really understand.

I actually strongly dislike the most "moeblob" character (Mikuru) but I feel like she was written specifically to be disliked. She could be moe and halfway competent. Instead she's moe and completely useless, unless they run into some kind of alien that has hypersensitive hearing so she can wail it to death. But I even find her interesting as a character because of the questions surrounding her older self's involvement, and (depending on whether you trust Itsuki's word or not) how much of her incompetence may or may not be an act.

i forgive Mikuru for everything. no, not because she's pretty.
imagine this: you're assigned to observe a rare being, potentially dangerous if provoked.
you're given specific orders to not interfere or interact with this being, as precaution.
and then out of the blue not only the subject of your observation notices you, it jumps right at you and socialize openly with you, a thing which you were strictly forbidden to do.
Mikuru Asahina is Dr. fuckin Emmett Brown dude. everytime i see her troubled face i think she's like "Great Scott! this could have serious repercussions in future events!"

For me it was the character of Kyon. His lenghty mental monologues(acted with excellence by Sugita Tomokazu) and his reluctant and sarcastic approach to his role as the anchor that keeps Haruhi from going (more) batshit insane.

Some of the story elements are very interesting, like Haruhi's ignorant omnipotence and so on.

For me, Haruhi was the anime that got me into seriously following anime.
The emotional subtext is just beautiful, and frankly, "Someday in the Rain" is the most beautiful episode of any show I've seen ever.

Agreed, these guys are idiots. I'm definitely not a fan of plotless and generally pointless anime (basically the definition of all moe-blobs), but Haruhi wasn't the cause of its recent surge. All they've shown in their so called "thesis" is correlation, but absolutely no evidence pointing to causation. These otaku are noob trolls... FUCK'EM UP GOOOD.

I have to say that I don't think recent anime has gone completely to shit. As a recent example, Fate Zero is a tv series and looks as good as many (maybe even most) high-budget 1990s OVAs and it has high-tier voice actors/actresses.

Lycopene, that would be be true if all you cared about was how anime LOOKED, but their are other things like story/concept, characterization, plot, music, etc.

It's entirely possible for anime to suck while looking better than past anime. In fact, it should be EXPECTED for anime to look better since technology improves as time goes on, so basing a defense on that is a cop out - "SEE? Anime hasn't suffered! It LOOKS better!"